I subscribe to Hocquenghem's theory that sexual orientation - and the concept of sexuality itself - is a fiction and convenient locus for societal regulation of sexual normativity. That the erotic exists in every single relation you have to the world and culture demands a magnification or suppression of it in various ways in order to create the family structure and reproduce society through generations.

I am interested in how heteronormativity has maintained itself in the modern era of homosexual acceptance through limiting the opportunities for people (especially men) to become aware of latent homosexual desires within themselves. Has there been any research into this area?

Today, I was reading Jose Munoz's Cruising Utopia. I was struck when he said, "I have resisted Foucault and Benjamin because their thought has been well mined in the field of queer critique, so much so that these two thinkers' paradigms now feel almost tailor-made for queer studies." I am fairly well-read in Benjamin but have not encountered much of his reception in Queer Theory, and am really struck by the suggestion he is "tailor-made for queer studies."

Does anyone know much about the reception Benjamin in queer studies or have readings to recommend.

Hey folx,

I’m a queer, desi, psych student currently in the early stages of researching to potentially write a chapter for a book. The chapter will focus on themes of queer lives, colonization, and collective losses. That’s just a brief overview—if you’re curious and want to know more, feel free to DM me!

I’m looking to connect with researchers or authors who might be working on a book and would be interested in having me contribute a chapter. If you know of any platforms, networks, or communities where I could find potential collaborators—or even pitch this idea—please let me know.

Any leads would mean the world to me!

Hello all!

I am currently in my last year of my undergraduate, and I am specifically studying how queer people find belonging and companionship through both digital and physical spaces. I figured reddit is the perfect place to start because this group specifically is such a strong community. If you could please fill out this 7-question ANONYMOUS form, I would be so so grateful.

The link is provided here: https://forms.gle/BaUN6XqXNCimrsTt8

No email collected, no name collected, just your responses on how you find belonging. Thank you so much for helping a student excel in their studies!

Hi everyone, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this but I am currently writing an essay on drag and need to define it (obviously) for the purposes of the essay. Does anyone know of any good definitions of drag from any prominent queer theorists? I can't seem to find any, as all texts I've found seem to operatee on the basis that we already know what drag is....I dont want to have to use the OED definition!!!! Thank you in advance :)

This may sound stupid but...why is drag a primarily queer practice.?And, more importantly, is there anny literature that discusses this? I am writing an essay about identity/drag etc. and have been reading lots about how drag is queer and the importance of drag to queer identities. But how about the reverse?? Why is it majority queer people who partake in drag?? And which academics are talking about it?! Thank you in advance :)

I keep coming across the term identity politics recently and while I feel like I have a fair grasp of the concept, I feel that often I'm encountering it being used to argue that queer identities reflect a small group of people and queer views and issues are being over represented and basically pandered to. Particularly around the use of inclusive language.

I understand it more to mean that Queer struggles align with broader universal struggles for freedom of self expression, access to universal health care, right to self determine and what not, and when identity labels dominate conversations it allows for people who don't identify as queer to easily opt out of those discussions, and isolates and fragments people. It also seems to interact with race and class in setting standards of what it looks like to belong to this identity.

Where I struggle with it is on a practical point of view I do need people to know my pronouns in the same way I need them to know my name. It's a function of english language. I'm not pushing some identity politics agenda, I'm just going to rhyme time with my kid or whatever, exisiting. Its been coming up a lot more since Trump was re-elected, which is annoying because I'm not American but we import a lot of the US political conversations.

I would love some resources to learn more about what identity politics actually means, especially discussion grounded in day to day life although I don't mind theory, I'm just new to it and time poor.

Hi everyone,

I study comparative literature and political theory in Paris and I am doing some preliminary research for my master's thesis. It's still too early for me to decide what to do exactly but I'm quite interested in the queer critique of identity politics and exploring it through the concept of jouissance (jouissance is a psychoanalytical term usually translated as enjoyment). The idea would be a type of enjoyment, sexual but not only, who would disturb identities and blur the boundaries of the subject.

I know it's quite vague that's why I need to read more. I heard someone mention the notion of psychic excess in sexuality in the work of Butler but I haven't been able to actually find it in their books.

Anyways, if any of you has some recs for digging deeper in that direction, I would be very thankful :)

Take care !

My friends and I always talk about the joy and freedom that comes from being gay/queer/nonbinary. Specifically, how being so allows us to be free of societal expectations and harmful gender roles.

So I was wondering if anyone knows of any research or books that touch on this. I would love to see what we feel and talk about put more eloquently/professionally.

This study seeks to understand some of the things that may link cisheterosexist experiences and mental health in LGBTQ+ young people. It invites you to complete 3 short surveys - one when you are ready, another two weeks later, and another two weeks after that.

We would really value your participation :)

Participants must be:

1. LGBTQ+ (inc. questioning/unsure)
2. 16-25 years old
3. based in the UK

Study provided ethical approval by King's College London Ethics Committee (Ref: HR/DP-24/25-45481)

Link to the information sheet and first survey is here, which includes contact information if you have any questions: https://kclbs.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_blz1Qd1t6H7MBds

Hello – I am studying the effects of shame for cisgender closeted LGBQ people. In the following survey, you will answer about 20 questions. You should not experience any more than everyday discomfort should you choose to take this survey.  You can skip questions or withdraw from the survey at any time. Anonymity for participants will be maintained; data will not be linked to names.

There may be some questions some may find explicit in nature. Please skip any and all questions that you feel you cannot answer.

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. If you are interested, please click the link below:

By clicking the link and taking the survey, I am acknowledging that I am 18 years of age or older, AND live in the United States AND identify as the gender that was assigned to me birth AND identify as a *closeted Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Queer person

*You can be closeted to everyone, a select few, or even only out to people online

https://qualtricsxmzkwpyrq86.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_da0yvwxohAnAi0u

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at: 

Josh

researchshame@gmail.com

Or my faculty advisor at:

rplante@ithaca.edu

I've read a bunch of books and have stuff I'd like to discuss in real time, anybody know any discord servers for this subject?

Hi Folks,

I’m putting together a syllabus where I pair some classic works of theory (mostly but not only queer theory) with works of literature or media. I want to teach Eve Sedgewicks classic essay on Paranoid Reading, but I am struggling to think of what to pair it with. I thought I would try to crowdsource some ideas.

Also, if folks have ideas for Sontag's Notes on Camps or David Halperin's How to Do a History of Homosexuality, I would also love to hear

My gf and I were talking about wacky acronyms and she mentioned nambla. When she told me what it stood for I was shocked and did a Google search with reddit at the end.

It brought me to this subreddit....

The op of the thread and the people responding were acting as if pedophilia was part of lgbtq?

Then they were arguing that pedophiles deserve an outlet to get off. They were saying that it wasn't good that countries were banning sex toys that resembled children. They felt as if pedophiles should have the right to fantasize about fucking children.

I just want to let the pedophiles in this subreddit know that it doesn't matter how hard you try to identify with lgbtq. You're not a part of it. You're part of an insidious and hated group known as pedophiles.

As soon as you began fantasizing about children you lost your right to identify as lgbtq.

Hi, everyone! My name is Rob or Nero, I'm a sexologist living in Madrid, Spain and I'm starting a short survey to investigate a subject I feel very strongly about. This questionnaire aims to collect information about the experiences and identity of cis transfeminine men, defined as men who, although they identify with the male gender, do not want a penis or wish to have a vulva. It covers topics such as early influences, self-perception, medical and psychological support, and social impact, with the goal of better understanding and advocating for the needs of this unique group.

If anyone would be interested in participating, please, check out the link below.

Thanks a lot in advance!

https://forms.gle/8F3ufyEk2o9o8Bqj7

I've been looking for a good place to start reading and learning about queer theory in general. I'm a white GNC lesbian, and I've pretty much just read Stone Butch Blues (which was phenomenal). Reading some of the posts on this sub makes my brain hurt and I don't understand a lot of the discussions.

Books I own:

Feminism Meets Queer Theory (collection of essays)

The Straight Mind by Monique Wittig

Feminism Against Family by Sophie Lewis

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Are these are good places to start? What will be easier for me to delve into? Or should I start somewhere else?

These books are also white authors, what are good POC to read?

I have an assignment for class where I have to choose one or two songs to base my case study on. I normally focus on womens rights or feminism in these types of assignments, but this time I want to focus on a more queer or gendered, or even just a more intersectional point of view. The thing I want help with is discovering artists, music or music videos in which I can explore this. It is a new way of doing academia for me, so I thought I would hop on here and just ask.

Hello, I'm starting a project of writing a children's picture book (high prob. middle grade) about transgender self discovery and the inner processes of that and I'm trying to avoid many cliches, for one the pink/blue dichotomy or "Tommy was bullied for being effeminate but wore a dress and everyone loved it and accepted them" because I think those are a disservice to trans narratives in the present however, I'm scared of tackling that self-identification from a very easy-to-digest neo-lib stand point (very Born This Way-esque) and I want to push it further but I feel like I need to have more solid arguments to construct my narration and I just want to ask for ideas, suggestions and references. Love ya, thanks!!

This is going take a minute to formulate, so bear with me. Late 20th century queer politics [edit: in the US] had two reasons for coming into being. A) the death of labor-socialism by the 1970's meant a search for new revolutionary subjects, and B) the later HIV/AIDS crisis. These new revolutionary subjects were to be understood as the oppressed waiting in the wings for a revolutionary coalitional politics. The first one degraded into Democratic Party representation and limited, contingent legislative reform in the US, the second became an ongoing global tragedy which only in the last decade met some success thru PrEP. This, alongside with the limited legislative success of same-sex marriage counts as a kind of partial fulfillment of the queer liberation movement's historic demands. Its success was limited, because same-sex marriage legislation has weakened in recent years. And since access to PrEP is mediated by an over-complex neoliberal health care industry composed of state-private partnerships meant to emphasize competition, it means that you are subject to healthcare that can evaporate in an instant if conditions change even slightly. Not everyone gets to have PrEP. The system fails rural people, Black and Latino people, people with or without health insurance, unhoused people and so on.

However, that partial success meant that queer liberation has had trouble reconstituting itself as a movement, not least because there is no global left movement for socialism to undergird its demands in the wake of recent reactionary reforms. In the place of such a left it led to Democratic Party representation thru their protection racket, where vulnerable groups are offered protection and rights but this protection/rights is contingent and weaponized for votes. Like you could interpret Dem politics as using queer and trans people as props to bait conservatives into targeting hate crimes at queer people, so that queer people vote more for Dems even though the party fails to offer consistent protection and rights. As well as crafting weak legislations which can come undone rather easily, further substantiating this unfortunate dependence on the protection racket.

So now queer liberation has tried to reinstatiate itself thru disability rights, which makes sense because the HIV/AIDS health care crisis was one of its primary raison d'etres. But since disability rights is subject to the same Democratic Party weaponized contingencies, it means that queer and disability politics goes into niches further removed from concrete politics. It's followed much of the same tack as other political concerns, in the way that in place of specific demands it just poses questions of "Who am I?

So all that to say I'm looking for queer historians who are trying to understand queer politics' success and failures as they relate to broader material/social conditions in the late 20th century​/early 21st century. Edit: while this post is largely addressing US conditions, I'd be interested in hearing how late 20th century queer history has played out globally.

EDIT: I overstated that part about questions of "who am I." Political questions are organically a part of material/social conditions in the modern era, arising out of real concrete problems. I think I'm struggling to say something like, because of the way the 20th century played out, mass politics is blocked from dealing with concrete problems directly. So that becomes reflected both in academia as well as state representational politics. It's not specific to queer or disabled political factions, it's much more general than that.

I am very new to queer theory although i have identified as a lesbian for a few years and overall consider myself educated on LGBTQ+ topics. I used to think queer was just a term to describe your gender/sexuality, but am now realizing it may be much deeper than that. I am greatly interested in learning more and if anyone can explain it to me i would really appreciate it. Thanks so much! :)

EDIT: I am not asking for myself, as I am not cishet, just asking as a general hypothetical to learn more!